Royal Navy to Accelerate AI Adoption to ‘Increase Lethality’

The British Royal Navy says it wants to "increase the lethality" of its current forces by deploying AI capabilities.

The Royal Navy unveiled its AI adoption road map at the DSEI event last week in London, outlining its aspiration to “accelerate AI adoption across the spectrum.”

The road map, which can be found in a post on the government’s contractor portal, focuses on six core areas the navy wants AI to focus on:

A snapshot of the AI road map. Credit: Royal Navy

The navy says the need to scale AI can’t be understated and points to the effectiveness of AI deployments in the war in Ukraine as a prime example of the need to scale. Ukrainian defenders have made great use of autonomous systems in its fight against Russian forces, including drones to target supply lines behind enemy lines.

Royal Navy Pathfinder Projects

The British Navy also announced the establishment of the Naval AI Cell (NAIC), a team tasked with identifying and advancing AI capabilities. The NAIC team will be involved in “pathfinder projects” which are key projects the navy is looking to test out AI capabilities. Those projects include using AI for acoustics, underwater autonomy and counter-uncrewed air systems.

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The navy is also looking to establish a standardized method for validating the application of AI to increase capability. Part of that process will involve the creation of a dedicated use case database.

The navy has been testing AI capabilities for some time. Last April, it purchased autonomous mine-hunting systems from German naval electronics developer Atlas Elektronik.

AI is a key focus for the British Ministry of Defense, with second permanent secretary Laurence Lee appearing on the AI Business Podcast earlier this year to discuss the transformation of the country’s military into an AI-ready force.